16 replies to this topic

[1453 R]

Picked up a Scorch during the Christmas Hero sale, what with all that Comp MC floating around.

Kitted it out as a faster-moving variation of the Grim default metacomp loadout. Artemis isn't critical down here in Slopland, and being able to go faster than fifty klicks is.

It is a 'Mech-shredding, life-taking, soul-corrupting monster beast of death and ruination. I've had two 1200+ damage games with it in the last two weeks, I average over 700, and frankly it's rare to see it go below 500. Reminder - I'm a T4 idjit that tends to struggle to break 500 outside of very specific 'Mechs. This thing scores 500 basically by existing on the map.

Just this last game, my team had taken the high ground in River City, trying to hold the spaceport. My Seismic gave me a blip, something coming in through the tunnel. I turned, went to watch for the emerging enemy, and it turned out to be a brawler Atlas. AC/20, three SRM-6 launchers w/Artmeis, handful of lasers. My team was sniping, lurming, and generally chickendicking up top, so I decided this Atlas was my problem. Half-core it in the back with my first shot. Start gouging bloody chunks off of it with my second, after it turned to face me. I dueled this thing, almost entirely alone, and ye know what?

It ran first.

This murderous marauding monster machine made a BRAWLER ATLAS break and try to bolt. 'Course, Scorch is just a wee bit faster than a Fatlas so I just chased him down and kept shooting him until he died. I didn't even suffer any armor breaches. Dueled a 100% integrity brawler Fatlas down to zero inside a hundred meters and didn't even end up opened up. Dealt 852 damage that game before I got overrun by a King Krab. Which I still came so close to killing that the very next shot from somebody behind me, on my death cam, knocked it over.

'Mech is fragile for its size and has only averagish assault mobility, and its reach is real damn short...but you can still hit pretty well out to 'bout five hundred, and you can keep people honest and let them know you don't take kindly to their AC/2 dinking out to 600 if you accept that you're putting them on notice more than dealing damage. And if it gets the fights it wants? I haven't met the enemy machine yet that doesn't panic.

Scorch. It's pretty nice. Loads of fun. Give it a shot, if your budget allows.

That is all.

Edited by 1453 R, 07 January 2022 - 07:57 PM.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Looks a bit easy on the ammo supply, but I otherwise like the concept!

[w0qj]

Many thanks, giving it a spin now

Your build also does missile damage towards that Jan'2022 free mech challenge...oops...event!

[Edit]
I've downsized to XL Engine 330 for 2 more tons, to take advantage of the 3x vacant critical slots!
Speed is 62.8kph (down from 64.8kph); still faster than that Fatlas!
[/Edit]

Edited by w0qj, 07 January 2022 - 10:37 PM.

[ccrider]

I have 2 Scorches in my drop deck. Both do 70.5 kph and can still pound out 1400dmg before I'm empty. Speed is better than redundant ammo you'll never use. As a brawler you are gonna take a lot more damage than a sniper/trader so you don't need to carry excessive ammo. You wanna get into position and be able to to dip into cover when necessary as you get close. But you are correct; the Scorch is hella fun and my favorite mech in the game. Buy 2. Drop in FP. Have a blast.

[1453 R]

Heh, indeed. Spatmaster Sickburns here is a great choice for progressing both the ballistic and missile damage tracks. A 330 is workable, though I only see a single ton gained compared to the stock 340. Enough for an extra heat sink or some extra ammo if one is profligate in their shooting, for sure, and if you have the 330 sitting around then by all means try it. I'll admit I have mine Speed Tweaked, both for the Tweak and for the extra agility from the Mobility tree in general. Frankly, I'd kick it up to 350 or better if I could find the internal space for Ferro without making huge sacrifices.

Yeah, the only time I've ever had ammo issues was when I got one of my legs shot off after expending most of my non-that-leg ammo. Only time I've ever run out of ammo, and the only time I've even gotten a 25% warning was one of those 1200 damage games. With ammo-rack quirks I've got a thousand potential damage in the autocannons and a bit over eleven hundred potential damage in the SRMs. Honestly I could probably get by with dumping a ton of ammo for each weapon system and still do fine in most games, but I like the ability to throw autocannon fire out past nominal range to get people to duck and cover.

Might honestly experiment with pitching the fourth ton of missile ammo for an extra heat sink. It's already heat-efficient enough I don't need Operations or Cool Shots at all, but Rider ain't wrong about lugging around ammo you don't need. Both ammo nodes in Firepower means three tons of warheads still comes out to nearly nine hundred potential damage, on top of a thousand from the kaboomiguns. Heh, hell, might even be heckin' heretical and sack the extraneous missile ammo for an AMS. One ton gets me some LAMS, or a solid-shot AMS with half a ton of ammo. Enough to help me conserve a bit of extra armor until I can jump on somebody, and then either flip the LAMS off when I'm firing or accept that I'll run out of AMS ammo. After all, AMS ammo is also ammo you can haul around that does nothing for you if you overdo it.

[Escef]

I run mine with 4xSRM4, 2xLPL, 2xUAC10. It's hot as hell, but dear gawds does it wreck things. Generally requires some bracket fire, up close you want to drop the LPLs for the SRMs.

[1453 R]

Just got off of a thousand-damage game in Frozen Classic, four kills, two of them solo. One of them was me turning a corner and finding an untouched KDK-3 in quad-10, Bad Touch Bear configuration. This was after I'd taken a bunch of armor damage handling other problems early in the match. Immediately took aim at the left shoulder, and while he was dealing wth jamming autocannons, calmly sawed it off. Very nearly got headcapped, cherry-red heads are Concerning, but after the first shoulder went it wasn't much of a problem. Calmly took aim and started sawing the other shoulder off.

Bad Touch Bear stuck his nose out.

Bad Touch Bear got burnt.

Heckin' gawd I love this thing.

[1453 R]

Anyways.

I'll admit, I've been considering the tens-and-LPLs remix myself, something vaguely in the realm of this nonsense...but yeah. Definitely seems like it'd be within hailing distance of "Surface of sun" hot, those legs are thinner than I like to try and cram that last heat sink on, and the increased range comes with loss of close spikey damage. That burst DPS figure is nice, though. 27 git-fukt DPS ain't no joke, and one of Brawly Scorch's biggest issues is Rei getting impatient and jumping before she should.

Perhaps an experiment for another time, though good to know similar builds elsewhere have done well.

[ccrider]

Twin LB20s and 4 srm 6s. All you'll ever need from life.

[RickySpanish]

Scorch is one of very few configurations that can carry 4 SRM 6s and TWO LB20-Xs. If you manage to get into optimal range with it there are few 'Mechs that can beat its close range punch. Basically only Annihilators will beat it in a brawl. It's a great 'Mech.

[Kanil]

The Clanners actually have quite a few 'mechs that can do 2 LBX-20 and 3 or 4 SRM-6: Marauder IIC, Highlander IIC and Mad Cat Mk II all do four SRMs, while the Supernova and Warhammer IIC can do it with three.

Looking at the Highlander IIC's agility makes me kinda wonder why I never see it running this build, honestly.

[Sergeant Destroy]

Highlanders hardpoints are all over the place, thats why.

[1453 R]

I will say that having the boomsticks in the arms is a big boon for dealing with light 'Mechs. Forty points of shotgun blap following the arm crosshair has harvested more than one light leg in my run, and frankly even if I don't claim a component, most light 'Mechs rapidly find someone else to mess with after taking a double-20X shotgun blast.

You can do a similar build on Keeper, the Highlander IIC Hero, and either get jump jets (yay!) or a sidecar LPL to kick the alpha up into levels even a Dire Whale has to respect, but the weapons are split up to high hell and almost necessitate forced arm lock. Keeper's more maneuverable but significantly slower even with the biggest engine you can clap in it. Boiler has about the same mobility profile as Scorch but with a lot less groundspeed...heh, but it's also got a UAC/20 HSL quirk that means it has no business running shotguns. Double Ultra 20s, triple sixes, and go absolutely bongo apes#$% on people. My brother owns Boiler over Scorch, and he's taken to putting three flamers on his. Awful hard to dodge Dakka Armageddon when you're shut down from pushing too hard under flamer fire.

All three have their pros. Scorch has the best hardpoint layout and the best groundspeed, and Marauder-IICs have workable hitboxes. They're not as good at spreading damage as a base Marauder or a Stalker, but mine routinely takes 700+ to bring down even with relatively minimal defensive piloting. Keeper's got jump jets and the best agility but is hampered by Highlander-style wacky hardpoint hijinks, and Boiler is the undisputed master of the Ultra 20 - whether you like it or not. Which dakka-spewing assault monster you like will depend on what you value, which is as it should be.

[Bassault]

1453 R, on 08 January 2022 - 10:20 AM, said:

Might honestly experiment with pitching the fourth ton of missile ammo for an extra heat sink. It's already heat-efficient enough I don't need Operations or Cool Shots at all, but Rider ain't wrong about lugging around ammo you don't need.

I disagree. Although heat is very important when farming, so is ammo. I would just go double coolshot on the skill tree. It's nightmare fuel for me to be fighting and then all of the sudden I have no ammo and I need to kill the last guy or the last 2 guys. You could also just strip more leg armor for heatsinks.

Edited by I LOVE ANNIHILATORS, 08 January 2022 - 09:36 PM.

[Herr Vorragend]

1453 R, on 07 January 2022 - 07:56 PM, said:

Picked up a Scorch during the Christmas Hero sale, what with all that Comp MC floating around.

Kitted it out as a faster-moving variation of the Grim default metacomp loadout. Artemis isn't critical down here in Slopland, and being able to go faster than fifty klicks is.

It is a 'Mech-shredding, life-taking, soul-corrupting monster beast of death and ruination. I've had two 1200+ damage games with it in the last two weeks, I average over 700, and frankly it's rare to see it go below 500. Reminder - I'm a T4 idjit that tends to struggle to break 500 outside of very specific 'Mechs. This thing scores 500 basically by existing on the map.

Just this last game, my team had taken the high ground in River City, trying to hold the spaceport. My Seismic gave me a blip, something coming in through the tunnel. I turned, went to watch for the emerging enemy, and it turned out to be a brawler Atlas. AC/20, three SRM-6 launchers w/Artmeis, handful of lasers. My team was sniping, lurming, and generally chickendicking up top, so I decided this Atlas was my problem. Half-core it in the back with my first shot. Start gouging bloody chunks off of it with my second, after it turned to face me. I dueled this thing, almost entirely alone, and ye know what?

It ran first.

This murderous marauding monster machine made a BRAWLER ATLAS break and try to bolt. 'Course, Scorch is just a wee bit faster than a Fatlas so I just chased him down and kept shooting him until he died. I didn't even suffer any armor breaches. Dueled a 100% integrity brawler Fatlas down to zero inside a hundred meters and didn't even end up opened up. Dealt 852 damage that game before I got overrun by a King Krab. Which I still came so close to killing that the very next shot from somebody behind me, on my death cam, knocked it over.

'Mech is fragile for its size and has only averagish assault mobility, and its reach is real damn short...but you can still hit pretty well out to 'bout five hundred, and you can keep people honest and let them know you don't take kindly to their AC/2 dinking out to 600 if you accept that you're putting them on notice more than dealing damage. And if it gets the fights it wants? I haven't met the enemy machine yet that doesn't panic.

Scorch. It's pretty nice. Loads of fun. Give it a shot, if your budget allows.

That is all.

I´m using this build since the mech came out. It works. It still works. Somehow it´s a one-trick-pony. But the one-trick is great

[Ekson Valdez]

Thread moved to Assault Mech Builds

[panzer1b]

Hard to get in range on some maps and games, but i agree that if you can get it into range, 92 damage per click with reasonable cooling (and all of that damage being frontloaded even if ut spreads) is insanely good and will delete mechs. I run mine mostly like the comps do, with SRM-6As but im pretty sure i rearranged the ammo to give myself more LB-20 since i like the option to start shooting at 450m or so with those LB-20s as they do some damage out to that range and i save the SRMs for the true brawls. Its fun to come across a dakka dire and 1v1 it without even getting any open components, but yeah, you have to get close before the enemy is aware. Very much feast or famine, many games where i get a ST shot off before i even engage a single thing, and other games i walk over an entire lance without trying as they come out of cover 1 at a time.